


Apology Accepted

by CaptainC_Ham



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Best Friends, Drowning, Gen, My First Work in This Fandom, Near Death Experiences, This Is STUPID
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-30
Updated: 2017-06-30
Packaged: 2018-11-21 12:31:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11357562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainC_Ham/pseuds/CaptainC_Ham
Summary: Dick Grayson and Wally West are best friends, and they work like clockwork together. Except for when they’re not best friends, when they’re in the middle of a big fight. In which case, the successes of missions and the survival of lives are in jeapardy, and Batman is having none of that. So he sends them off to an unsupervised beach (by a lake that is nearly chock-full of seaweed, by the way), which may not have been the best plan of action.





	Apology Accepted

It was a simple, covert mission. Of course, when things start off simple, they rarely ever _finish_ simple.

     In this case, two of the most important aspects of the team — Kid Flash and Robin — kept on arguing. What was the fight about? Everything and anything, really. How did the fight start? Now, that’s the question. No one knew! It probably started off in private because nobody remembered KF and Robin beginning to quarrel. They just remembered them _continuing_ to quarrel.

     The mission was a success, but just barely. The whole team was angry with Kid Flash and Robin because it was all their fault that the Young Justice League nearly died and/or failed. But of course, the two boys were too busy being angry with each other to notice the _rest_ of the team being angry at them too.

     What was the mission anyway? Something about a drug dealer, taking over some city or perhaps it was the whole planet, and maybe even the Injustice League. But hey, who remembers little things like that?

     Robin got home in the angriest state anyone had seen him in quite a while. Or, rather, would have seen him, if anyone _had_ seen him. But Bruce wasn’t home yet, and Alfred was busy preparing supper, so no one did see him. That also meant Robin had no one to vent to. He headed into the Batcave and did the one thing that truly calmed him and took his mind off his problems: acrobatics. After a couple hours of practice, he dragged himself upstairs to find dinner ready. Dick ate and collapsed on his bed with a tired sigh and was instantly asleep.

     The next day, he had planned to just lounge around and practise acrobatics. Maybe hack into the GCPD files again, see if anything interesting happened that he hadn’t already heard of. Before he could decide what to do first, Bruce showed up in his doorway.

     Dick gulped, ready for the lecture about yesterday’s failure that was sure to come. Instead, Bruce simply said, “Get up. Get ready. You’re going to the beach today, remember?”

     “Wh–What?” stammered Dick as he flew around the room, getting ready.

     Bruce sighed. “Wally invited you to the beach about a week ago,” he reminded his ward. “To mark the end of summer vacation, I think you said it was for. I even promised to reserve the beach for the day so no one would bother you. And that’s just what I did.”

     Dick grunted when he recalled the invitation. “Aw, do I have to go?” he whined. “Wally and I aren’t exactly on the best of terms...”

     “Yes, you do,” said Bruce, “and I know.”

     Dick froze. Uh-oh. Bruce _did_ know. He braced himself for that aforementioned lecture, readying himself for its arrival, but it didn’t come. Bruce, instead, continued casually —

     “But you need to figure out a way to _get_ on the best of terms. I’m sure you’re aware that you two are very important parts of the team, and yesterday’s near-failure was because two certain important parts of the team weren’t working ‘on the best of terms’. Apologize, make up. Whatever! Just don’t let what happened yesterday happen again. Plus, I spent quite a lot of money on that reservation. It’s not going to waste!”

     Dick sighed in defeat and finished packing. “So...a punishment,” he said. “It’s pretty much my punishment for being sloppy yesterday and for letting my personal life get in the way of a mission. Am I right?”

     Bruce grinned. “Maybe,” was all he said before he disappeared.

 

* * *

 

Dick wore his bathing suit under his clothes. He had a towel draped over his right arm and his goggles clutched in his left hand. His bag full of sunscreen and whatnot was already in the car. He hopped into said car and Alfred drove him over to the beach Bruce had reserved for the two boys. Dick had been looking forward to this all week, but now, he was anything but.

     “A message from Master Bruce, Master Richard,” said Alfred as he plopped the bag of typical beach things on the sand. “Because he had reserved the beach for only you two, there will not be any adult supervision, which includes a lifeguard. Seeing as you are a decent swimmer and Wally is very good at the sport, he did not worry about it. Have a good day, Master Richard.”

     And then Alfred, with the car, left.

     Dick sighed heavily and pulled off his clothes, shoving them into the bag so he was only wearing his trunks. He laid out a towel on the sand and lathered himself in sunscreen. He sat on the towel, just mulling over how to apologize to his best friend, when said best friend showed up.

     “Hey,” muttered Wally as he threw his towel and such on the sand, a good yard away from Dick.

     “Hey,” replied Dick. He stood up and walked over. “Er...about yesterday....I’m sorry. For everything. I mean, I don’t even remember what we were arguing about! Can we just — ?”

     Wally frowned, and the expression looked so strange on the boy’s face to Dick, since he was normally always smiling and goofing around. “Really, Dick?” he scoffed. “You can’t even remember what we were fighting about? Do I really not matter that much to you? Or is it just that you think you’ve got better things to worry about than our friendship?”

     Dick’s eyes widened. “What?” he gasped. “N–No! That’s not what I — ”

     Wally huffed and ran into the water, leaving the younger boy standing on the shore, his mouth agape. After getting over his shock, Dick lowered his eyes shamefully and jumped into the water as well.

     For the first few minutes, Dick followed Wally and tried apologizing over and over. Wally always brushed him off and quickly swam away. _Huh,_ thought Dick. _I guess he’s not only a fast runner but a fast swimmer too. This won’t be as easy as I had hoped..._

     After a while, Dick finally gave up and started floating around, far from Wally who obviously didn’t want to be here with Dick.

     Dick sighed and stopped floating so his feet could touch bottom and he could head back to the shore on his feet. One problem: His feet _didn’t_ touch bottom. He must have been so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t realize he was way too deep for his level!

     Dick sunk to the bottom, where the murky water nearly blinded him, and where he started to panic and got his foot stuck in some seaweed. The slimy plant’s sudden contact to Dick’s skin sent a shiver down his spine. It was a long piece of seaweed, and easily got itself wrapped around Dick’s lower leg. He tried to swim back up but couldn’t make headway, though his legs being completely vertical and thus useless weren’t exactly making swimming an option. Dick’s head tilted back and his lips were very close to parting. His eyes shut and black dots danced around in the edges of his vision as he started to black out from lack of oxygen. _This is so stupid: I survive explosions and poisoning and all sorts of crap and I die from a piece of seaweed,_ were his last coherent thoughts.

     Meanwhile, Wally had finally talked himself into listening to what his younger friend had to say. It wasn’t fair that he wasn’t accepting Dick’s apology, not even listening to the boy. Wally looked around to go over to Dick but didn’t see him in the water. He glanced over at the sand and didn’t see Dick there either.

     “Dick?” he called. “Dick!”

     No reply. Maybe he was just in the bathroom...? And then Wally saw a shadow in the water, and his eyes led him to the sight of a Dick Grayson-sized figure sinking limply in the water.

     Wally swam swiftly over to the figure and saw what made his heart skip a beat: Dick — _his best friend Dick Grayson_ — unconscious, his legs tangled up in seaweed, worryingly still. Wally dove down, wrapped his arms around Dick’s chest so that his elbows were adjacent with his friend’s underarms, and tugged. And tugged. _One more try before I get some air..._

     After three tugs, the seaweed around Dick’s legs loosened and Wally was able to bring the boy back to the surface. Wally broke out of the water with a gasp but didn’t allow himself enough time to calm his breathing and heartbeat fully, for Dick was in obvious need for medical attention. Wally adjusted himself so his left arm was hooked around Dick’s shoulders, and then he swam the both of them to the shore. Wally laid him out on the sand and brushed the hair out of his eyes to see if he had woken. _Stupid! He won’t be awake! He needs CPR!_ Wally scolded himself. _Crud... I don’t know CPR!_ Wally needed someone who did know. Doctors! Doctors would know! What an idiot Wally was to take so long to realize.

     He picked up the limp body of Dick Grayson and ran to the nearest hospital. And not just civilian-paced running. He really ran!

     When he arrived at the hospotal, he did a five-second costume change before entering and calling, “Hey! I need some help here! Some kids at the beach... One of ’em got his foot stuck in seaweed and nearly drowned. The other one is waiting pretty worriedly back there.”

     Some nurses and a doctor rushed over and took Dick out of Kid Flash’s arms. They hurried him over to another room. Everyone was staring at Kid Flash, who would normally be soaking up the attention, but at the moment was more occupied with arguing with himself about whether or not it would be suspicious to follow Dick and worry over him.

     Finally, he came to the conclusion that would indeed be questionable, though Wally West worrying over his best friend wouldn’t be. “Um...I’m just going to go and...check on that other boy,” he said awkwardly, kicking himself for stammering, before waving and running out. He changed back into Wally, waited two minutes, and then ran in, trying to act out of breath. “I...I’m Wally,” he gasped. “My friend... My friend Dick? Got admitted ’cause he...he almost drowned. I–Is he okay?”

     A nurse walked up to him, smiling in a way that had to be forced. “Follow me, Wally,” she said. “He’s fine. Only took about a minute before he was stabilized. Nothing to be worried about.”

     Wally dropped the “out of breath” act so he could quickly ask the question on his mind. “Can I go see him?”

     “Of course. That’s where I’m taking you right now.” The nurse paused. “Is there anyone you’d like to call? Your parents and perhaps Dick’s parents?”

     Wally’s eyes widened. Uh-oh. He wasn’t worried about his parents because it’s not like he snuck out of the house. In fact, they had forced him to go to the beach, so they obviously knew where he was. But Bruce... Yikes. How was the overprotective billionaire going to react to Dick almost drowning and it partially being Wally’s fault? Or, rather, how _badly_ was he going to react?

     Well, he had to tell Bruce now. Either way, Bruce was going to find out, and if Wally kept it from the big guy, he’d probably be even madder at the speedster.

     “Um, yes,” answered Wally rather sheepishly. “My parents and...Bruce Wayne.”

     The nurse skidded to a stop. “Bruce W–Wayne?” she stuttered, and then her eyes widened. “Oh! That boy must be Dick _Grayson_! I knew he looked familiar...”

     Wally nodded and even smiled a little at the nurse’s nervous reaction. It was good to know he wasn’t the only one intimidated by Bruce Wayne, the man who looked like he could ruin you — physically or financially. The nurse opened a door and motioned for Wally to go in. “There’s a phone in there,” she informed him. “You can make the calls from that.”

     The speedster nodded again and watched the young nurse walk away before entering his friend’s room. Dick was sitting up and leaning against the wall, staring at the clock on opposite side of his room. When he heard the door open, his head snapped to the side to see who was entering. Dick broke out in a grin when he saw it was Wally.

     “I heard you saved me,” he said. After a brief pause, he corrected himself, “Oops, I mean Kid Flash saved me. Tell him I said thanks the next time you see him, alright?”

     Wally nodded once again and sat down in the seat beside Dick’s cot. Dick shifted positions so he could look Wally square in the eye, since his friend’s solemnity tipped him off on the seriousness of Wally’s visit. The speedster took a deep breath. “Yeah, I saved you, but it was also my fault you needed saving in the first place,” he got out in one breath.

     Dick furrowed his brow. “Now, wait a minute — ”

     Wally held up his hand to shush his friend. “If I had accepted your apology,” he elucidated, “we would’ve been swimming together and you wouldn’t have gotten so far. Even if you had, I would’ve been able to help you get out of that seaweed much earlier and you wouldn’t have lost consciousness. Besides, it’s not like you to let your thoughts wander so much you got too deep for your level. I bet you were thinking about something really troubling.” Wally paused and, even though they both knew what he was referencing, he said: “Like your situation with me.”

     Dick did something that truly took Wally by surprise: He grinned and punched him playfully in the shoulder. “Speaking of which,” the younger boy said, “I take it you accept my apology if you’re going around saving my life. And if you accept my apology, I accept yours.”

     Wally scoffed at the terrible attempt at a joke, but then he broke out in a smile as well. “Yeah, I accept your apology,” he said. “Just don’t go around drowning anymore, okay? At least not while I’m around! I have to tell Bruce what happened, and he most definitely will not be happy!”

     Dick laughed. “No kidding,” he chuckled. There was yet another pause before he said softly, “I missed this: smiling and joking around with you, Walls. And it’s only been, what, twenty-four hours we’ve been fighting?”

     Wally smiled a little. “Yeah,” he agreed, unnaturally quietly. “I missed this too. I never want to miss it again. Er— I mean— That came out wrong. I mean...I hope I’ll never have to miss it again. I hope we’ll never fight like this anymore.”

     Dick nodded. “Agreed,” he replied.

     And the two boys hugged to seal the agreement.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first story for Young Justice so I know it’s crap. Please do leave some constructive criticism in order for me to do better in my later works. I know this one-shot is far from perfect. Feel free to call me out (respectfully) on any of the several mistakes I have certainly made!
> 
> Also, thanks for reading! :D


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